


Grey Hearts

by vivific



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Emotional Manipulation, F/F, Manipulation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 04:45:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7743868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivific/pseuds/vivific
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lila only thinks in binary. She's either telling the truth, or telling a lie. Marinette Dupain-Cheng is messing up that careful coordination.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grey Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> **[May 26th 2017]**  
>  This story is now abandoned. I'm sorry. Thank you for reading. 
> 
>   
> Cover art by me.

Volpina isn't publicised, but Lila certainly is.

Ladybug's callout gets filmed by a couple of people in the park and goes viral on the Internet. Immediately afterwards comes news of a new akuma, and it doesn't take long for the Internet to piece together her identity.

Lila wakes up on Saturday to Ladybug trending on Twitter in Paris and her Facebook feed blowing up. She laughs humourlessly at the derisive comments on her Instagram and doesn't touch the Internet for the rest of the weekend.

But Monday rolls around, and she purposely enters class just as the bell rings. All eyes are on her, though a few students, like the Asian girl in the front, avoid her pointedly. The teacher begins roll call just as Lila sits down. She can still feel staring, but ignores it.

They're not worth her time.

Class goes smoothly, composing of only a lesson with a lot of silent note-taking and some questions, until Lila's brain stumbles over a term in French. Her hand goes up and her peers stare at her intensely.

"What do you mean by," she tries to repeat the word, fighting her Italian accent. Chloé doesn't bother hiding her laughter, but Lila finds that nothing new.

It wouldn't be the first time her lacklustre pronunciation and poor understanding of a language caused amusement for her peers.

The teacher explains it with a warm smile and Lila nods, writing it down into her notes.

The bell rings and Lila begins to pack up things, until a certain blonde yanks her binder out of her hand and makes a show of looking over it.

"Oh, what a surprise," Chloé sneers, flipping through the sheets. "You don't write your notes in Italian, superliar."

Lila isn't fazed at the echoed insult and picks up the rest of her things, striding away for the door. Chloé yells something at her indignantly and Lila trips over another student's outstretched leg.

She ignores a few of her classmates' laughter and climbs back to her feet, picking up her dropped bag. She continues out the door without her French binder and starts down the hall.

Eyes once again centre on Lila and she resolutely stares in front of her. Her next class is History, if she remembers her schedule properly, and it should on the lower floor. All she has to do is go down the stairs and-

"Lila!"

She ignores the voice calling for her. She doesn't recognise it, and frankly there's no one she'd want to talk to anyway.

But the person catches up, feet quieting to a matching pace. Lila halts as her binder is pushed in front of her from the side, blocking her from going down the stairs.

She turns to her left and stares at the Asian girl who avoided her gaze at the beginning of class.

"I got it back for you," she says, voice hesitant and a faint blush on her cheeks. "I thought you'd be needing it."

Lila looks back down at her binder, before looking back up at the girl.

A petite frame draped in pastels. Wide blue eyes framed with blue-black hair tied back into pigtails. East Asian features mixed with something Northern European. Likely French.

Lila's first thought is that the girl is trying too hard to be precious and cute. But she did also just get her binder back for her. No matter how she did, or if she was secretly friends with Chloé and convinced her as part of a cruel prank, Lila can't just turn her away.

"Merci," she says, and her Italian roots catch on the 'c'. Her face flares and she hopes it doesn't show through her dark olive skin. She takes back the binder and opens it cautiously, expecting trash thrown in or something similar.

But everything is untouched. The papers are a bit crumbled from Chloé handling, but aside from that it's fine.

"I'm sorry about Chloé," the girl says. "She had no right to be like that towards you."

"You do realise I lied and manipulated your entire class, right?"

The girl flinches slightly and Lila doubts she's in league with the blonde. Not many people are such good actors.

But then again, she herself existed.

"Y-Yes, but-"

"But what?" She asks, opening her bag and putting her binder inside. She doesn't have time to deal with any of this. "How can you feel sympathy for someone who's manipulated you?"

Playing nice is pointless when everyone is suspicious of her.

The girl's face calms into a determined expression, and she shakes her head. Her pigtails swish behind her.

"Even so," she says, looking Lila in the eye. "It's not right for Chloé to mock your French. That's just wrong."

Lila smiles, though it's one of the smiles where she's not entirely certain if she means it or not.

"Well congratulations," she says, and her understanding of English keeps her from butchering the ending. "You're less xenophobic than most of my classmates."

She heads down the stairs, and the girl stammers audibly before she rushes down the stairs after her.

Then there's a scream and Lila notices movement out of the corner of her eye. Before she knows what's happening, one hand is on the railing and the other has the girl's arm in a death grip. Lila's swearing loudly in multiple languages as the girl flails for the railing and narrowly avoids tumbling down the stairs.

Lila pulls her back into balance and the girl clutches the opposing railing like a lifeline. Her eyes are wide in surprise.

"Everything all right?" Someone yells from the upper level.

"We're fine!" The girl replies, and her words are far too cheerful for her possible near-death experience.

"You should have been more careful," Lila chides, her heart still preparing to lunge out of her chest. "You could have gotten hurt!"

"Sorry," the girl says, a bashful look on her face, and she has the audacity to smile sheepishly at Lila. "I'm really clumsy."

Lila's eyes are ready to stare up through the open ceiling. This girl had to be playing some sort of act, no one was naturally this endearingly adorable.

And then she remembers she still has her fingers digging into the girl's arm, and lets go. The girl brushes down the wrinkles in her sleeve casually.

"Sorry about all that," she says, again, fingers lacing together in nervousness. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"Why are you apologising when you were the one who almost got hurt?" Lila asks, giving the girl a quizzical look. She shakes her head. Enough is enough. "Go to class already."

Lila continues down the steps and the girl, for once, doesn't try to follow her.

Lila doesn't even know her name, so she assumes they’ll never interact again.

She is horribly, horribly wrong.

* * *

The rest of her classes follow a similar formula of silent staring and murmured gossip. Some people are dumb enough to make a show of talking about Lila in her presence, and a few even confront her. Lila does as she did to Chloé, and ignores them.

She has an hour and a half of reprieve when she goes home for lunch, but the brief break is broken by the reminder that she will have to go back to school for her afternoon classes.

Lila has no idea when her mother will be re-assigned, but she's already hoping they can leave this country.

Chloé corners her at her locker, and Lila can feel her soul ready to leave her body.

She knows. She screwed up. She shouldn't have gotten so over in her head and let her hubris get the better of her.

Will people leave her alone already?

Chloé says something to her and it's surprisingly easy for Lila to ignore the blonde. Foreign languages were usually easy to tune out, but since she knew languages related to French, she expected her ears to pick up on cognates.

But Chloé's words go through one ear and out the next, and it's only until the blonde blocks Lila from leaving does Lila actually say something.

"Would you please move out of the way?" She asks, even using the formal 'vous'.

"Where are you going? Gonna go lie to the people at the bus stop? I don't know if they understand Italian, though."

Lila doesn't pray anymore. Prayers dwindled after she and her mother left Italy. They stopped long before she began lying.

But dear God, she would go and confess to her sins and pray for forgiveness if it made Chloé Bourgeois shut the fuck up.

"Leave her alone, Chloé."

Lila's eyes close at the sound of the familiar voice.

She would confess, and pray, go to church, _and_ attend mass if she could get out of the situation immediately.

Unfortunately, divine bartering or no, it doesn't work.

"I never knew you liked liars, Marinette Dupain-Cheng," Chloé's laugh sounds like nails on a chalkboard. "How about that?"

"I also don't like people like you. Lila's French is fine. How's your Italian?"

Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Likely Chinese-French. Her given name sounded nice in French, though Lila had to keep herself from associating it with the Italian pronunciation.

Lila slips past Chloé and Marinette, and heads straight out the door.

And to her annoyance, she is pursued yet again.

"Lila!"

She stops and waits for the girl to catch up. Marinette swings in front of her, hands clasping together and _seriously_ was this some sort of act she was putting on?

"Thank you for getting Chloé out of my hair," she says, her voice dry and borderline emotionless. "I'd like to go home, though."

"Listen, Lila," Marinette begins, hands moving to wrap around herself.

Nervous. She's nervous, Lila notes.

"What Ladybug did you to you was wrong," she says at last, eyes bright. "She had no right to call you out like that even if you were spreading lies about her. She should have confronted you in private, not somewhere where someone could film you and post it to the Internet."

Lila simply watches as the girl defends her.

"And Chloé- Chloé has no right to be making jokes about your accent. You're not a native speaker and really- I think your French is great, Lila. Your accent's really cute."

Lila blinks at the last part and Marinette's head ducks to the ground.

"Thank you," she says, and her words and actions are entering a scarcely seen grey area. "I appreciate everything you've said... Marinette, right?"

Marinette grins, even though Lila slips and pronounces the last 'e' of her name.

"The 'e' is softer but, yeah, that's my name." Her face glows and Lila wonders what the hell is going on.

"Is it a diminutive?" She asks, because she's not too familiar with French's. She guesses it's similar, at least.

Marinette shrugs, and her pigtails bounce slightly on her shoulders. "Kinda. It's my given name, not the diminutive of Marina or something."

"Nice," is all Lila says, and her brain is muddled.

Marinette has entered the grey area, where Lila can't tell if her words are true or false. Lila's answering on instinct, and she has no idea how she feels about this girl.

Except that she needs to stay the hell away from her.

Lila only thinks in binary. She's either telling the truth, or telling a lie. Marinette Dupain-Cheng is messing up that careful coordination.

"I have to go," she says. "My mother wants me home early."

Ah, good; a nice lie. An overused one, but nonetheless.

"Oh, okay, sorry then," Marinette gives her an abashed look and Lila swears this girl has to know what the hell she's doing. "I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"Yeah," Lila says, and she's already contemplating switching classes to get away from this girl. "See you."

And she walks out of the front door of the school, and shoos away the grey area with a broom.

* * *

Chloé continues harassing her, and Lila considers adding "Capable of dealing with nuisances" to her resume.

So by the end of the week, after Lila's figured out the approximate time Chloé enters their first morning class, she enters moments before the blonde and her ginger-haired accomplice and stealthily drops a note by the foot of Chloé's desk.

Then she sits in the back of the class and watches the drama unfold.

"Oh, is this a love letter?" Chloé's voice is loud and draws the attention of those present in class. Her jaw drops at the name written on the front.

"Chloé," Sabrina gasps. "It's for you!"

"Ha, obviously! Everyone adores me," Chloé beams, arrogance pushing aside surprise. Lila screens her amusement.

"Dear Chloé," Chloé reads aloud. "The sky wishes it was the colour of your eyes, your hair rivals the colour of the sun, I didn't know how to tell you this, but I think you're the one!"

Her voice rises higher and higher with each compliment, and Lila waits for the penny to drop.

"With all of my love and all of your beauty, I seek out this sole clarity," Chloé's reading faster than her brain was processing the words in front of her. "Do you love roses?" Her brow furrows in confusion. "They're just like you, pretty and beautiful and-"

Her words cut off and Sabrina, forever looking over her shoulder, claps her hands over her mouth. Chloé's face turns bright red, even through her makeup. Lila hides her smirk and feigns confusion.

"Aren't you going to finish your secret admirer's letter?" Alya asks from the other end of the class, bemusement written all over.

The blonde's eyes go straight to Marinette, and Lila frowns slightly.

"Is this your idea of a joke, Marinette Dupain-Cheng?" She demands, her face twisting in anger. Marinette flinches back.

"What? I had nothing to do with this!"

"Liar! Figures you'd learn from superliar over there."

Alya intervenes.

"Look, Marinette's been on this side of class the entire morning! Neither of us have even gone near your desk." Alya's hands rest on her hips, a defiant look on her face. "And look-"

Alya takes a paper from Marinette's open binder.

"Is the handwriting the same?"

Chloé's teeth grit visibly, her hands crumpling both sheets of paper. She tosses the page back to Marinette and storms up the rows to Lila. Lila meets her angered gaze with a mix of confusion and bemusement.

"Yes, Bourgeois?" Lila raises an eyebrow.

"You think this is funny, don't you, new girl?" Chloé spits. "Do you know who my father is?"

"Seriously?" Lila asks, raising both eyebrows. "You can't just go accusing everyone who doesn't like you."

Though frankly, that'd comprise of most of the class already.

"Here, since you're so sure it's me." Lila takes out a French worksheet and holds it in front of the blonde. "Not my handwriting."

Chloé fumes.

"Now," Lila says, rescinding the worksheet. "Unless you wanna get everyone in the class to show you their handwriting-"

Chloé glares at her like she's trying to kill her with her eyes, before spinning on the spot and stomping down the steps and out the doorway. Sabrina looks concerned before she grabs their bags and runs out after the blonde.

The class bursts into murmurs and Lila puts her worksheet back into her binder and keeps her smile under check.

She turns to a blank page and twirls her pencil in her left hand.

Being ambidextrous was actually accidental, but it impressed people so she kept it.

It also helps that her handwriting differs between hands.

* * *

The weekend is all right; the drama starting from Ladybug's callout video having calmed down. Lila really likes the ephemerality of Internet drama. She spends the weekend catching up on her homework and regulating the social media fallout. She's lost thousands of Twitter and Instagram followers, but surprisingly, some people are defending her. Others take a more neutral stance, saying that both Ladybug and Lila were in the wrong.

Lila shrugs it off. There's no coming back from this type of scandal, she knows. So she'll simply count her blessings and keep her lies more low-key. People will assume she's lying all the time now, anyway, so it's really pointless of her to try anything.

The least she can do is not prove them right.

Her mother only sighed at the news and said that Paris really was something else. Lila shrugged and said that it was just like the States, except with more magical weirdness.  Her mother raised an eyebrow and shook her head before kissing Lila's forehead and heading off for work.

Monday rolls around once more and the school day follows a routine for Lila. She has no friends, which is a first for a very long time, but it doesn't bother her in the slightest. All she has to do in concentrate in classes and do homework in the comfort and silence of her apartment.

Until the end of the school day, when she finds herself cornered into a secluded part of the school by Adrien Agreste.

"What?" She asks, voice flat, staring up at the boy with an annoyed look.

"Lila," Adrien begins, and there's anxiety and self-doubt all over him. It's the first time they've spoken since she was akumatised. "About that day in the park-"

"That was over a week ago."

"Yes," Adrien cringes and Lila's brows furrow. "I just wanted to apologise for the scene Ladybug caused. It wasn't right for her to call you out in public like that and-"

The words sound familiar and Lila pins them on that French-Chinese girl.

"I've heard all of this before, Agreste. I know what I did was wrong. Skip the lecture, please."

Adrien looks surprised at being waved off, and stammers for a bit, before his face turns resolute.

He really does seem similar to Marinette.

"Lila," his face softens, though the determined look stays. "I know why you did it, I get it."

"Really?" She asks, already preparing to prove him wrong. Her face morphs into a hopeful look. "You do?"

"Yeah," Adrien says, smiling at her apparent response. "I only just started school last year. Making friends was really hard, when all people would see what assumptions. People only saw me as the teen model and Chloé's friend. Most people didn't like me on my first day."

Lila laughs, unwittingly. Adrien's smile drops for confused surprise.

"You really are naive, Agreste," she shakes her head and smiles in a way she knows puts other people off. "Your experiences and mine are nothing alike. People's view of you is out of your control; I made people see me a certain way. If I showed up out of the blue, all people would think of me is a new Italian transfer student. That's all."

Adrien fidgets, staring at her with wide eyes. Lila's smile drops and she gives him a bored look.

"But I still- I get why you would lie to make friends-"

What is he trying to do?

"I didn't lie to make friends, Agreste," Lila sighs, because it seems there's no other way to get the message through his innocent mind.

She's not a good person. There's no excusing what she does. And Lila is perfectly fine with it.

"I lied for attention. I lied so people would be interested in me and my life. I don't want friends, Agreste. Friends don't last for someone like me."

Adrien blinks.

"I move around way too much to keep friends, all right?” Her face shows resignation. “I mean, it's hard enough making a friend within the span of a few months or so, it's pretty much impossible to actually keep them after I've left. Out of sight and out of mind, is that a saying you understand in French?"

Adrien's face twists in concentration, and Lila wonders if she even translated that saying properly. Then he nods, slowly.

"So if people are never gonna think about me once I've left, what's the harm in playing off of my experiences? It's not all lies, I only exaggerate a bit and lie here and there. They're not going to remember, never mind care."

Her voice rises a bit and her throat tightens and she stops talking. Adrien stares at her with something her mind exasperatingly classifies as pity.

"Yeah, I went overboard this time, all right?" She snaps, fists clenching visibly. Adrien looks taken aback. "I shouldn't have lied about being a superhero when that could put actual people in danger. I won't be so stupid again, but let me tell you one thing, Adrien Agreste."

She gets into his face and glares in a rare show of genuine, true emotion.

"You know nothing about me, and we are nothing alike."

With that, she passes him and heads out into the corridor.

And runs straight into Marinette.

Lila steps back and stares at the girl. Her heart, having been surprisingly calm throughout the conversation with Adrien, now beats wildly in her chest.

"How much did you hear?" She asks, throat closing up again, and this time it's not so intentional.

Marinette, today dressed in frills and lace and looking everything like a fragile porcelain doll, looks up at her with big blue eyes, mouth open slightly in shock.

"I- I didn't-"

"Ugh, forget it," Lila says, and walks past her. She’s far too sweet to say anything, anyway.

"Lila, wait!"

Lila doesn't, and keeps walking down the corridor towards the exit. Most of the school has cleared out, thankfully.

But Marinette's rushed footsteps continue following her, and Lila finally stops. She'd rather have a somewhat-private confrontation than drag this out into the streets.

"What now?" She snaps, turning around. Marinette looks like she's been slapped.

God, this girl...

"I'm sorry," Marinette says, fingers tangling together. "For everything that's happened to you. Moving around like that must be horrible."

"Yeah," Lila says, and her mind's once again entering that rarely visited grey area. "Whatever."

"I won't tell anyone what I heard between you and Adrien," Marinette says, and there's something sinister in her eyes. Her hands fall to her sides. "On one condition."

Lila frowns at her. Her heart stills.

"Are you blackmailing me?"

Marinette smiles, too sweetly, and holds out her hand.

Lila's jaw clenches. She was so _right_. Marinette was acting the sweet, fragile girl part.

She’ll admit, though; it's odd being on the receiving side of a setup.

"And," Marinette says, "I won't tell Adrien you stole his book."

Lila is genuinely thrown off guard.

"How did you-"

"I was there in the park that day," is all Marinette says.

Lila's brain crashes, just a bit.

Her thoughts enter the grey area she's now beginning to associate with Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She can't tell if she wants to fight the girl or applaud her.

Well, her precious sweet girl in pastels act seemed way too pure to be real, but then again, after seeing their classmate Rose, Lila wonders.

"Or I could tell everyone you're trying to blackmail me," Lila says, trying to regain some semblance of control over the conversation.

It's so strange. It's always been her at the reins, manipulating people around her. Granted, now that everyone knows she's a liar, she's let it go for the most part. But even so, having her own game turned against her...

Lila is both impressed and annoyed.

She supposes her peers were smarter than she'd expected.

"Lila," Marinette says, and it seems she still has a conscience, unlike Lila. Her face dips a bit in confidence and she looks saddened. "I want to be your friend."

Yeah. No one would believe anything Lila said. Especially not against a seemingly sweet girl like Marinette.

"I don't know a lot about friendship," Lila begins, leaning on one foot and resting her hand on her hip. "But I know it's usually based on trust."

Marinette tilts her head, a waiting look on her face, and her hand still outstretched.

Yeah, there is no way this girl doesn't know what she's doing to Lila.

"Blackmailing someone into becoming your friend hardly constitutes as an act of trust." Lila finishes, staring at the girl.

At first the blue of her eyes reminds her of Chloé's, but they're deeper around the edges and gleam like the sea closer to the pupil.

Marinette's name seems oddly appropriate.

"It's your choice," Marinette says, and she must know her words are a lie.

It's not Lila's choice in the slightest.

She would just let it go and walk away. Who cares what Marinette would tell her class? The world already knew she was a liar. They could have her being a kleptomaniac too.

But what she told Adrien...

What other people knew about her was only ever what she chose to let them _think_ they know. Her words were true but the emotion behind them was not. Lila could care less at this point about having friends. From experience it never worked out so there's no point in crying about what she can't change.

But although she could theoretically use Marinette outing her past to her advantage; some people might see her as simply a troubled young girl with social issues… It's the fact that someone else would have the upper hand over Lila and override her control and do what Lila does not want them to do.

In that moment, Lila thinks Marinette is either crueler than even herself, or perhaps just smarter than her.

Neither are appealing thoughts.

She looks the girl up and down. Stares into the blue eyes reminiscent of the girl's name.

Marinette's waiting, still smiling, still holding out her hand. Nothing is on her face except for expectance and warmth.

Lila frowns. It's too genuine.

"You don't blackmail people often, do you?" She asks, still frowning but raising an eyebrow in question.

Marinette's smile overflows and she laughs in a way Lila knows people do when they're anxious and don't know what to say. Her hand drops and she covers her face and laughs through her fingers, her entire body trembling.

Lila's called her bluff.

"I'm sorry," Marinette says between heaving breaths, leaning forwards and Lila is almost worried the girl is crying. "I can't excuse myself- I just-"

Lila finds herself smiling and shaking her head.

"You need a lot more practice, but then again you were never faking to begin with," she analyses with a warm and cool feeling in her heart. "Except for the blackmailing part. It'd ruin your pretty good girl image if you did tell everyone."

"My- My what?"

Lila shakes her head again and sighs.

Amateur.

"You feel sorry for me, don't you?" She says, and Marinette straightens, her hands dropping to her sides. Her face is red from embarrassment.

"It's not like that-"

Marinette's a lot more expressive now, her face betraying her worry.

"I don't need friends, Marinette," Lila says, and she wonders if she's beginning to purposefully pronounce the girl's name in an Italian fashion. "Friends don't end well with me."

"Then let me prove you wrong," Marinette says, determination crossing her face yet again. "Please, Lila, I know things can be better than this."

"Please, Marinette," Lila echoes in an exasperated tone, though a plan begins to sprout in her mind. "You're really cute, you know that? But it's just not worth the effort. I've been fine being alone all my life. Just because people know I've lied doesn't change anything. I don't need friends."

Marinette's face cools, and she pulls out her phone.

"Oh?" Lila doesn't know if her surprise is real. "Are you actually going to tell everyone I'm a thieving liar with a sob story?"

"I don't like liars, Lila," Marinette says, jaw clenching in determination. "I think manipulating someone who trusts your word is the worst thing you can do."

Lila hopes she's not counting all the actual fatal and mentally traumatising things.

"But I think you can be a better person," Marinette says, and her eyes shine with hope and warmth. "I want to be your friend."

She really is too adorable.

"Even if it means threatening me," Lila concludes.

Marinette winces, looking sheepish.

"I'm sorry," she says again, but her phone remains in her hand. "I just want to-" She grimaces and Lila can tell she's never threatened anyone in her life.

"You're trying to tell me you're serious," Lila guesses, eyeing the girl carefully.

Marinette nods.

"I've had tons of friends in the past, Marinette," Lila says with a sigh, plan solidifying. "Staying friends while I'm still in Paris is the easy part. What about when I leave? By the time you've gotten together with some guy, I'll be nothing more than a memory to you."

"I don't think so," Marinette says. "I'm friends with Alya even though she's dating Nino."

"And once you're friends with me? I'm not gonna be the most important person to you, Marinette; I'm not even going to be at school with you on the daily."

Marinette's face remains determined, and Lila has to applaud her courage. Or maybe stupidity.

"Let me prove you wrong, for once." She reiterates, and pockets her phone. She steps closer to the new girl, and offers her hand yet again.

"Please, Lila."

Lila looks over her face for any tells and she decides to work with her plan. She looks down the offered hand, allows doubt to cross her face, and clenches her jaw. She clenches her fists purposefully and bites her lip.

"One chance?" She asks more than says, and stares up at Marinette with look of cautious hope.

Marinette nods, smiles warmly and sweetly.

"Not everyone will forget you, Lila," Marinette says, and Lila's hands tangle together over her chest. "Let me show you."

"I don't believe you," she stares at the ground and allows a waver into her voice. "After all I've done..." She laughs, and it's spiteful and emotionless. "You still want to be my friend?" She meets Marinette's gaze.

The Eurasian girl nods, confidently.

"I know you can be better," Marinette says. "You're not a bad person, Lila. I think you just had bad circumstances."

Lila tilts her head down, just slightly, and nibbles at her lip a bit more.

"Thank you," she whispers, and her words catch. "No one's said things like that to me before."

Lila meets Marinette's eyes and smiles, and there are tears in the Italian's eyes.

"You’re really- way too nice, Marinette." Lila murmurs, and her throat closes up.

Marinette only smiles, radiating warmth and acceptance, and Lila glances down at the still-offered hand.

Lila takes it, and Marinette smiles brighter than the sun. She throws the Italian off guard when her pulls her in for a warm, loving hug.

"I won't forget you," Marinette promises into her ear.

Lila is still, rigid in her arms, before she melts into the hug and murmurs back:

"I know."

* * *

The next day comes with Marinette beaming and waving at her in the morning before classes. Lila managed to make it just on time, so the Eurasian girl couldn't talk to her.

She plays the game on her own terms, not anyone else's.

But the first curveball Marinette throws at her routine, however, comes near the end of the last morning class Lila has with her homeroom peers: Marinette's shadow falls over Lila's notes.

"Something up, Marinette?"

Lila pronounces the last 'e' in Marinette's name. Lila thinks of it as her own way of making a diminutive of a given diminutive.

"I was wondering if you'd like to go out to lunch with me," Marinette says, sounding as though she's been rehearsing the question the entire morning.

Lila doesn't even look up from her notes, scrawling in the margins the Russian translation of a French math term.

"Sorry, I gotta go home and get something for my mother." Lila says, because her plan doesn’t kick in until after school. “How about after school?”

"Your mother's off work today," Marinette says matter-of-factly.

Lila raises her head slowly. The bluette smiles.

"Really now?" Lila tilts her head and she lets herself smile in bemusement. "And where would you have gotten that information, Marinette?"

Marinette blushes faintly, but she smiles through it.

"I'll see you at your locker at lunch, Lila," she says, and Marinette returns to her desk.

Lila stares at the girl as she ducks her head into her arms at something her friend with dyed orange tips says.

The bell rings, and Lila begins to pack up her things. Her next class is a terminale English class. It'll take longer for her to get to her locker than it would for Marinette, who has a free period.

She only played along with Marinette to shut the girl up and maybe have some fun leading her around, not to mention the social benefits of being friends with the class representative.

(If someone like Marinette is friends with Lila, then surely the Italian isn't all that bad?)

But it seems as though Marinette has traits of interest beyond her seemingly genuine sweet girl image and gullible kindness.

Lila watches as the girl exits the class with her friend, chattering with a grin on her face.

Yes, Lila decides, Marinette Dupain-Cheng will never forget her.

**Author's Note:**

>  **[May 26th 2017]**  
>  This story is now abandoned. I'm sorry. Thank you for reading.
> 
>  
> 
> [Check me out on tumblr for more stuff on writing, including wips and previews.](http://vivifics.tumblr.com/)


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